David Darst of Morgan Stanley received his CFA charter at age 59. BA from Yale, MBA from HBS, ultra successful career at Morgan Stanley, and he still went for the charter at a late age. This is pure motivation for me as I thought I was late in the game - I hope to complete the program before I’m 36.
Anyone in their 30s, 40s, or 50s going for the charter?
I got mine at 40.
#turned37
But he probably took these for fun after studying 2 weeks. Your motivation should be to replicate his other success, not something that he probably regards as trivial.
37 yrs. - took Level I in June
Got mine at 37.
I’m not worried about monetary success. I’m confident that will come if I continue to work hard and create opportunities. It’s the motiviation to stick with the program after a long day at work or possibly failing an exam.
Darst is a very smart man, but I’m sure he had to study pretty hard to pass the exams. I don’t see many candidates having an advantage in terms of less preparation unless you’re an accounting or economics professor.
Yes, sorry if I was dismissive. It’s too his credit and others’ that he is still taking tests and is not being a lazy ass like I would probably do in his position.
Personally, I think he’s a fool for taking the test.
People take the test so they can get a ticket to the game. Why buy the ticket if you’re already in the door?
Who among the greats has taken the test? Warren Buffett? Bill MIller, Jack Bogle? Soros? Lynch? Templeton? (I’ll give him a pass, being dead and all.) Carl Icahn? Julian Robertson? None–because they don’t need the initials to prove that they know their stuff.
(Bill Gross - took them during his first job out of grad school, not after he began Pimco.)
EDIT - after fact-checking myself, it looks like Templeton and Miller are also both CFA Charterholders. Don’t know if they took the test early in their careers or later or what. (I kinda doubt Templeton took it early in his career.)
It’s not “being a lazy ass”. It’s the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day. If you spend two of them studying, that’s two hours you can’t be doing something else, like sleeping, working out, making money, playing with your kids, watching NBA finals, etc.
30s is for partying
David Darst probably doesnt need to study too hard to smash through books. I bet a guy like this can read a million miles an hour and absorb, understand and assimilate 99% of things.
Darst is obviously an academic who is making his cheese and Morgan Stanely; some investment bankers get a thrill from doing a triathlon, some making it rain and some from adding letters to their name. This guy is obviously the latter 2.
Got mine at 39.
You can learn something from almost anything. At the very least, Dave can now better understand and maybe exploit all the CFA muppets who studied the same test and all think the same. Furthermore, his time cost is probably much lower than most other people. He probably studied half assed for two weeks, not 20 hours a week for 6 months like some people.
^ It still cost him 3 Saturdays in June . I wouldn’t be shocked if he did it on a bet and ended up winning a couple million from a buddy.
Or maybe he believes in the program and feels the industry needs a minimum measure of fitness. What better way to promote the charter than to obtain it himself? Falls on deaf ears if you suggest getting the charter if you don’t have it yourself. Especially in his position.
Ah Greenman I suspect that David Darst CFA does not much care what you think of him … I suspect he is astute enought to see value in something that you do not!
You guys are wrong in assuming the charter has no value for people in established finance roles. The material is very broad. Even if Dave already knew a large portion of the syllabus, it probably still helped to remind him about topics that he was not familiar with or had not thought about for a while. In terms of career progression, the value is negligible for a 59-year-old guy. However, smart motivated people will probably take away something anyway.
This dude in my office passed L3 after reading for a month on the train between CT and NY. We are derivatives traders. All this FSA and AM stuff is not applicable to our lives. However, is it worth a small amount of time to become somewhat up to speed with things that other people in finance care about? Of course. In terms of time cost, he could have been reading L3 or he could have been reading 50 Shades of Gray. It’s not a big deal.
Maybe he just enjoys learning and thinks it’s fun. Or maybe he’s setting an example for his employees.
As green man pointed out its not without precedent among successful investors.
I received the charter at 40yo.